Monday, January 4, 2010

Unlock Your Salon's Future: Visualize It!

Here we are entering into a new calendar year! This is always a time of reflection, a time of renewal, of making commitments!

As we move into this New Year, it is incumbent upon us to shift where we need shifting and look to grow where we need growing. As a leader, it is even more vital for this because you have to be a step ahead of your team and you have to guide them in the right direction to support them to grow.

At this time of year we all look forward and set new goals or resolutions. Setting goals takes on lots of different forms, writing them down, putting them in a journal, sharing them with someone, etc.

A great way to make this happen is by taking the following steps:

Schedule a year end planning meeting! Make it a whole afternoon. Take time in the meeting to celebrate successes from the past year, review results and compare goals set versus achieved. Move into setting personal and professional goals for both the individuals and the business to support growth.

Visualize it! During your meeting I recommend that you support the goals being set by creating something visual that represents it. In the past, I have been a member of teams where we creating our own goal or dream board for the year using a poster board, magazine cut-outs, markers, glitter glue, etc. This is highly effective and allows everyone to get creative and visualize what there year will be like for them!

Live it! Once you have set these goals and created a visual reminder of them most people stop there. There is another very powerful step you can take to support these goals to become reality and that is to live them! This means go out and taste, touch, smell, feel them. For example, let’s say that one of your employees wants to move into their very first apartment this year. This is a big step in anyone’s life and you, as the salon or spa owner play a huge part in supporting this dream to be realized. A great thing to do is schedule a few hours on an off day with this employee, have them meet you at the salon or spa and then take them apartment hunting! Get them out there touching and feeling their dream. Put it right in front of them. How inspired will they be to keep working towards making this happen!

Follow through! Once the goals are in place you have to lead your team and follow through with people. Supporting them to hold themselves accountable when they are having a bad day or are struggling through challenges that could take their eyes off of their goals. Be sure to get permission from them at the very beginning of the process to do this, and when you see it happening, go there with them!

At the end of the day, any goal can be accomplished! Take the time to help people think about what they really want, write it down, visualize it and help them make it real in 2010!

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Milady

Milady is the leading provider of beauty and wellness education and has been an industry staple for the past 80 years. Known not only as a provider of pre-licensure resources, Milady offers training and consulting nationwide in various forms for salon and spa professionals, changing the lives of tens of thousands each year.